…and watch the first half of the game, so Paul can ever-so-valiantly bring you what I miss. If the first half isn’t over by about 12:50, you’ll miss out n the end, because I must must go to my 1:00 class.

There are few things more awkward than sitting in a classroom, waiting for class to start, and leaving because you have realized that Lorch Hall isn’t so keen on this “wireless” idea.

I’ll be doing work during the game since I’m skipping class, so my apologies if the liveblog isn’t teh awesomez.

Posted under Misc.

Per Brian (and creepily verified through FaceBook), today is the official Zoltan Mesko Birthday, which shall henceforth be known as Zoltan Day. In honor of the joyous occasion, I am wearing my Zoltan shirt (dutifully purchased from MGoStore), and sharing a fun anecdote that I have likely already told and am too lazy to type out in its entirety.

Place yourself in LAX airport on January 2, 2007. You may just spot yourself a Zoltan! If you are extra lucky, connecting to Grand Rapids through Cleveland, you may just find a Zoltan on your flight! (Mario Manningham and Prescott Burgess, too, if you must know). Luckily, you taught your parents the “Z” symbol yesterday at the Rose Bowl of Finite Pain. Unfortunately, they enjoy embarrassing you publicly. They convince the flight attendant to form said “Z” hand symbol in the face of the Zoltan! He laughs in her face, and you feel like an idiot for having taught your parents not only the hand thing, but also telling them that He was on your flight.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Posted under Personnel

Half Time: If this game was decided by which university had the better PSA, Michigan would win hands down. With my apologies to EDSBS, SPACE BITCHES! Looking at the stats, Michigan is doing a good job of drawing fouls and not getting into foul troubles themselves. Only C. Sims and J. Smith have two fouls while virtually all of OSU front line players have at least 2 fouls.

18:30: Oden gets bailed out as the officials call the foul on Ivan Harris and not Greg Oden. Sims continues to earn my ire as he misses both of his free throws.

17:07: Big Ten officials <3 Greg Oden. And Amaker gets a technical and loses his coat! He’s just rocking the business casual turtle neck. He’s still yapping. Maybe he’ll get kicked out and Michigan will have a chance.

17:01: Amaker’s words did not fall on deaf ears and puts his coat back on. Petway drives and gets fouled by Oden. Oden may be a 7 footer, but Petway can jump as high as Dwight Howard.

16:06: Decent offense against the zone. Smith gets a little penetration and is able to get it to Sims a foot away from the basket who (just to annoy me) Euro-dunks it. Then Sims follows it up with a block on the other end. I’m liking the play from the seniors (although Abrams has been sitting most of the game), but Smith is really surprising me with good, intelligent point guard play for the most part.

14:42: Michigan is playing inspired defense. They got back and even though OSU had numbers, it looked like Michigan had more on that end of the floor. Eventually they force the bad shot and the OSU rebounder goes out of bounds.

14:09: Did Abram hear me? He’s playing a lot more aggressively now with two drives (one for a block) this one a really nice drive and finish.

12:55: Abram was running around looking for someone to guard. Luckily OSU turned it over stepping out of bounds.

11:49: Michigan is stagnating on offense, but they really look like they’re playing to win. Good hustle for rebounds and loose balls. Michigan has only 2 more turnovers then OSU and has a assist-to-turnover ratio of over 1.00. Weird.

11:22: Harris goes on to the court and breaks a 3-minute scoring drought with an and-1 opportunity which he fails to convert.

10:13: Petway vs. Oden. Petway wins.

9:02: WOW! Lob over the top of Oden to Courtney Sims who goes up strong with arguably the nation’s best shot blocker right over his should. Thad Matta looks like he’s almost to a gum spitting level.

7:54: The Big Ten officials seem to go by the assumption if Oden gets the ball and doesn’t score, there most be a foul. By the by, this might be the first game not against Delaware St. where I have been worried by Courtney Sims going to the bench. He has been playing Oden tough and had gotten it going on the offensive end. With the OSU game plan looking like “feed Oden” I would really like Sims out there.

6:50: Petway hits the deck to get the ball out to Smith on the offensive glass. Abram gets the ball and draws another foul. The seniors are playing like they don’t want to win the NIT.

5:56: I was just about to write how I don’t like Michigan playing the zone and then Smith comes up with the steal which leads to a Dion Harris score after an inbounds.

5:11: I don’t like Michigan playing the zone. They don’t know what they’re doing. People are just running around trying to guard a man or a zone, it’s hard to tell.

4:55: SIMS DRAWS A FOUL ON ODEN. Sims is trying to re-earn my love! Going strong into Oden and gets the freebies. NAILS THE FIRST! AND THE SECOND. Michigan up by two.

4:45: Oden gets it right back against Sims, who has 4 fouls.

4:15: Who is the player wearing #1 for Michigan; I sure don’t think it’s Smith. Honestly, besides the turnovers, which were only early on, he’s been playing out of his mind. Making great passes, great decisions, good drives and that ridiculous three point bomb from the side.

3:54: Sims gets an and-1 thanks to great feed, four fouls on Oden, and the hilariously named Terwilliger hitting his arm.

2:31: Michigan up by 2pts. It seems as though Michigan has been in control the entire game, but OSU could go on a run of 8-20 pts and blow this game wide open.

2:21: Michigan is starting to turn the ball over an awful lot. They need to stop if Michigan has any chance of holding on.

1:54: Michigan is down by 2. The game is going in the wrong direction. Michigan needs a solid offense possesion. If Dion Harris or Jarret Smith could turn the corner and either go all the way or dish it to Sims or Petway.

1:27: Sims misses a dunk. I’m pretty sure there was a foul, but Oden had four, so… no dice.

48.8: Sweet spin move by Harris draws the foul. He better make these…damn. Misses the front end of a one-and-one

10.0: Michigan can’t box out Ivan Harris since there are 6 Michigan players blocking out Oden. Immediate foul and Michigan is down by 3. And 4.

0.0: Smith throws it into the backcourt instead of, you know, shooting. OSU wins. Michigan gears up for another great NIT run.

Final: 65-61. A missed dunk by Sims and Harris missing the front end of a one-and-one with less than 90 seconds to go in a must win game. This, unfortunately, doesn’t surprise me at all. Two seniors, on Senior Day, against the #1 team in the country, playing for their tournament lives fold under the pressure. Now Michigan will have to win AT LEAST two games in the Big Ten Tourney for any chance of a bid. Amaker should try to get a Technical foul each game in the tourney. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Posted under Basketball

3:59 pm: Winthrop wins Big South Tourney. Importance? At large bid quality mid-major wins conference championship.

4:01 pm: Forget my Blogger password and have to reset it.

4:04: pm: Washington Huskies just bean UCLA… waiting for the Michigan game to come on.

(Switch to time in the game)
18:53: Game comes on and Michigan is up 3. That’s a pleasant surprise!

18:21: Apparently Mich. St. is playing. Love the announcers. And… Jarret Smith loses his shoe as opposed to losing the ball.

17:40: There’s that Jarret Smith turnover!!

17:21: There’s another one!!

16:45: Turnover #3 for Smith in less than 4 minutes! But he makes a 3 pointer… so he’s even I guess?

15:30: First media timeout 8-7 Michigan. Interior defense has looked fairly solid. Lester Abram has drawn at least two fouls so far.

15:12: Petway is awesome. Blocks the ball all the way to the Big House. He also has the winged hair. Pretty sweet.

14:32: Michigan doesn’t do anything that looks like offense until there is 10 seconds left on the shot clock which leads to a Jeff Bowden-esque 3pt shot from Dion Harris.

12:53: Ohio St. leads 11-10. And Harris turns it over. 13-10.

12:00: According to Big Ten Wonk, Michigan turns the ball over on about 41% of their possesions. They might up that average toady.

11:30: Courtney Simms gets a sweet entry pass and actually goes up fairly strong and puts it in. The only reason I’m noting this is because he usually either doesn’t catch the ball or has some sort of magnetic repulsion to the hoop on the catch.

11:08: Michigan and Ohio St. are primary rivals in football only in my opinion. In basketball I would say MSU is a bigger rival, and ice hockey is probably MSU too.

9:21: I like the defense that C. Sims has been playing on Oden. There was a really weak call on him on an Oden post possesion. If the refs are going to let Oden be physical on offense, Michigan defenders ought to be able to push back.

8:55: Jevohn Shepherd scores? That doesn’t happen. Although, it seems as though he should be better. He has good size and made a good move to the basket. I bet it has something to do with the ultimate player development coach we have…

7:48: Petway bricks a 12ft jumper. He should have just dunked it from there. AG why you ain’t doin’ that?

6:35: This zone is killing Michigan. The Wolverines are just tossing it around the perimeter hoping for one of the OSU defenders to die of boredom. With 4 seconds left Dion Harris starts driving (presumably for a hopeful toss) and gets fouled. Maybe they should do that more…

5:23: Jerret Smith can make some great plays (3/4 court lob to Petway/hook pass to Petway down low this game) but then will have the inexplicably dumb turnover. He could be pretty solid if he had a little more consistency

5:00: AG WHY YOU DOIN’ THAT? Huge dunk from Petway off of another GREAT feed from Smith after he broke down the defense going baseline. Michigan up by 8 now.

4:07: The Basketball team looked like the football team’s front seven against Penn St. (don’t get that reference? Ask Anthony Morelli) on the offensive glass.

3:51: For Christ’s sake Dan Bonner! It’s Michigan! They are wearing Yellow which is not close to either White or Green.

2:42: Big OSU run with improbable 3 pointers and some poor defense from Michigan.

2:14: Petway has actually achieved some basketball smarts during his time at Michigan (not classroom smarts as he is routinely in the back of the class with music blaring so loud the lecturer can probably hear it). He catches the lob, stays in bounds and feeds it D. Simms, who can’t convert, but still a nice play by Petway.

1:27: Epke Udoh, much to the chagrin of announcers, draws the charge. He’s going to be a star at Michigan, and is probably the only person on this team who has a chance at getting drafted (obviously not this year). But Dion Harris sure is a deadly shooter when he has space.

0:33: Michigan doing what it does best, running time off the shot clock, and then they turn it over. That might actually be what they do best.

Half Time: Michigan up by 3 playing at a pace that is good for them. Good defense for the most part. They have weathered OSU’s runs fairly well, usually maintaining the lead. I get the feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of OSU’s zone in the second half. Michigan has looked horrible against that defensive look. They got bailed out by some fouls drawn by Harris and did a good job of crashing the boards, but overall Michigan looked very stagnant against the zone. Up two is not bad going in to the half against the #1 (no matter how legitimate) team in the country.

Posted under Basketball

http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI’m not one to quote pay sites (see: , which I generally agree with), but in this instance, I think it’s a matter of some importance.

Rumors have been perpetuated on the internet (including those damn bloggers -ed.*) that three players, whose names I will not drag through the mud until this rumor has been in some way substantiated, have been caught with drugs and kicked off the team. Per Tom Beaver, at least the aspect of getting removed from the team is false, and he also stated unequivocally that the law is NOT involved.

Other evidence I can provide, however trivial, circumstantial, or spurious it may seem:

1) I saw one of the players in question yesterday, still wearing his varsity warmups (as most players always do, since they get washed by team trainers), and appearing to show zero concern. Unless this is something that happened overnight or this morning, it is unlikely that he has been kicked off the team.
2) A player (who shall remain nameless, but is not one of the internet-accused) used to hang around my house during the summer, and described the process by which players can be suspended during the offseason. The general idea is that different types of violations charge you with “points,” and after you accumulate a given amount of said points in a time period, you get suspended from the team. Positive tests for marijuana, and getting caught possessing marijuana, were not enough (again, this was in the offseason, which is going on now) to warrant a suspension, much less getting booted from the team. Unless these guys were cultivating or selling massive amounts of weed, or were involved with more illicit drugs, I would doubt the credibility of a rumer that simple possession would get them completely booted from the team.

Thus, even if players were caught with illicit substances, the degree of punishment claimed by this rumor is inconsistent with what I have been told is team policy. As of now, I’d consider this rumor completely unsubstantiated. Updates provided when more news becomes available.

*Brent Musburger

Posted under Misc.

…and there was much rejoicing. By which I obviously mean lack of noticing.

Regardless, Paul has been added to the Varsity Blue Force Five team, and will theoretically add some sort of value to said blog. Hopefully he will at least post on days when I’m too lazy to (read: most days). Welcome him with open arms, dammit.

Posted under Blog News

From the Free Press.

Obviously, Appalachian State (HOT HOT HOT L.O.L.!!!!!) was not the first choice for Michigan, fact which was readily apparent to everyone except Brent Musburger’s “bloggers” (i.e. bitchy internet people).

The far more interesting tidbits from that article are the not-so-subtle hints about future series (including away games) with Rutgers, Stanford, and a (slightly-less-obvious-to-discern-which)
team in Texas. Martin raises these “areas” in which he wants to play away games under the guise of playing close to large alumni bases (a laudable goal in and of itself), but it’s also quite clear that they would be huge for exposure and recruiting.

Posted under Misc.

…or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Vance Bedford Officially Announced as secondary coach.
Big ol’ Gift given to athletic department.

Posted under Misc.

Appalchian State to fill opening date on schedule.

Bonus linkage from App. State Site.

While there is obvious disappointment over the scheduling of a 1-AA team, several articles have made it quite clear that, of the group of 1-A teams with an open date to fill, none were willing to take on the Wolverines. Such teams denying the non-sexual overtures of Bill Martin included Hawaii (returning a Heisman-favorite QB, didn’t want to screw his chance, probably), Vanderbilt (needed another home game to balance the checkbook, scheduled a 1-AA team), and about four other similarly-prestiged teams.

With two top(ish) teams already on the non-conference schedule, the scheduling of a patsy is not as disappointing as it could have been. The final schedule is as follows:

Sept. 1 Appalachian State (Maize out)
Sept. 8 Oregon (Maize out)
Sept. 15 Notre Dame (Maize out)
Sept. 22 Penn State* (Maize out)
Sept. 29 at Northwestern* (Maize out)
Oct. 6 Eastern Michigan (Maize out)
Oct. 13 Purdue* (Homecoming) (Maize out)
Oct. 20 at Illinois*
Oct. 27 Minnesota* (Maize out)
Nov. 3 at Michigan State*
Nov. 10 at Wisconsin*
Nov. 17 Ohio State* (Maize out)

(Maize out existence and emphasis mine, only once for hilarity/truth).

Posted under Misc.

The Freep reports that Hawaii, thought to be an option for the season opener next year, has been eliminated.

Interestingly, the article also says that Martine tried to score USC for the first game at some point in the past.

As of right now, the most likely opponent is sounding like Appalachian State. I will demand my money back if we play a 1-AA team.

Posted under Misc.